Greyhound Racing SA Limited was sentenced in the South Australian Employment Tribunal on 9 May 2025 following a SafeWork SA prosecution.

The incident occurred in September 2022 at the conclusion of a 342m trial dog race at Greyhound Racing SA’s Angle Park track.

At the time of the incident, the workplace was not open to members of the public but was being used by dog trainers and handlers to conduct trials.

Prior to the conclusion of a trial dog race, a handler and two other people followed a commonly used shortcut across the track to the catching pen to collect their dogs.

The handler was standing on the racetrack near the catching pen when he was struck by the 28kg mechanical lure as it passed at 70kmh.

The injured handler was taken to hospital by ambulance where he underwent two surgeries to repair three fractures to his right leg. He also suffered two fractures to his left hand, the loss of one tooth and a fracture to another tooth, and a laceration to the mouth.

Greyhound Racing SA was charged with a category 2 offence against the Work Health and Safety Act 2012 for failing in its duty to ensure the health and safety of other persons was not put at risk during the conduct of trials.

Greyhound Racing SA was aware of the risks associated with workers and/or other persons entering the racetrack during the conduct of trials. Nonetheless, both employees of Greyhound Racing SA and other participants regularly used the shortcut onto the track without being challenged.

Since the incident, Greyhound Racing SA has implemented design changes to physical barriers, access gates and the mechanical lure system. It has updated its standard operating procedures (SOP) for its trial operations, the use of the race lure, catching pen, decoy lure, return gate and exclusion zones.

Greyhound Racing SA has also updated its catching pen policy, which stipulates the requirements relating to the use of the catching pen for races and trials, which includes a specific prohibition on using the sliding lure chute as a throughfare.

In his sentencing remarks, Deputy President Magistrate Lieschke said the serious nature of the offence called for a high penalty.

‘The poorly controlled risk was of lethal injuries, with exposure to the risk being a regular occurrence at trial races,’ he wrote.

“The lack of effective safety resulted from the defendant’s failure to conduct a written hazard identification and risk assessment, with safety expertise input, and a failure to go beyond weak policy and administrative hazard controls. ‘It essentially failed to consider all the ways of preventing someone being hit by the speeding lure, and to implement in practice the best physical and administrative protections that were reasonably practicable.’

‘The defendant wrongly relied on ineffective paperwork that was not applied or enforced in practice.’

A conviction was recorded and Greyhound Racing SA was fined $255,000. It was also ordered to pay $40,000 in compensation to the injured handler.

Quotes Attributable to SafeWork SA Executive Director Glenn Farrell:

Greyhound Racing SA relied on limited administrative controls that disregarded the critical issues of practical application and were not enforced or followed.

Taking short cuts can, and in this case has, caused catastrophic harm.

Too often we are seeing substantial safety improvements made only after someone has been seriously injured or killed in what would have otherwise been a preventable incident.